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September 21, 2020 at 1:10 pm #154
Robert Ballantyne
Keymaster

I discovered something I didn’t know. A child theme is for only the theme, and not for the plugins. So, I cannot just modify the child theme to change the font size of the bbPress plugin. Phooey.

There seem to be 3 alternatives.

  1. As suggested at https://wptavern.com/how-to-extend-a-wordpress-plugin-without-losing-your-changes which suggests creating a a functionality plugin that will run alongside ppPress. The advice is, “[The] mantra of never editing core WordPress files should be observed for plugins and themes. The goal is to extend or remove functionality without having those changes disappear after an upgrade.” Okay, but I know how to modify some code. Creating a new plugin is likely beyond me. At least for now. If this is something that might work, this seems to be a good place to start, How to Create a Custom Functionality Plugin (And Why You Need One)
  2. There there is this enticing article, How to customize and enhance your bbPress forum easily. That is from the CSS-Hero site where they are selling a plugin called CSS Hero for $19/year. What exactly does that annual fee buy? They explain, “Each plan expires after 365 days from the purchase date. At the end of that period CSS Hero will continue working, but you will not be able to install CSS Hero on NEW (other) sites. At the end of your CSS Hero annual plan, your plan will NOT automatically renew.” That $19 is a discounted fee, so renewal is likely higher. Although it is not expensive, it is a subscription, and I’d rather explore what we can do ourselves. Why not use it and not renew? If a new version of Astra or bbPress breaks the connection with CSS Hero, we’d need the Hero upgrade to match the updates.
  3. Go into the bbPress plugin and see if I can find the CSS that specifies the font size and change that. Every time I upgrade the version of the plugin, I’ll have to go and repeat that modification.

For now, I’m not doing more until I hear that you really dislike using the forum as it is and something should be done. Or, we decide to use the forum with our clients and modification is necessary. Maybe I can find someone who wrote a functionality plugin to just change font-size and I can buy or copy that.

It is something we can discuss.